Paper ChaseGod Bless Your Black Heart

With a sound that may be best described as Ben Folds-meets-Steve Albini, studio engineer/producer John Congleton spearheads a dark, demented third album by his Texas-based band, the Paper Chase. Chiefly informed by his exposure to the nightly news, Congleston has seemingly ingested all of the worlds paranoia, rage, anxiety, and stress before spewing it forward on the songs found here. The albums mood can be determined from a quick glance at its track listing where songs have titles like "Dying With Decent Music, "A War Is Coming, "The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause, and "One Day He Went Out For Milk And Never Came Home. These are awfully heavy songs, which encapsulate a particularly bleak period in American history from a uniquely personal perspective. The effect is all the more immediate because Congleton dials his sardonic twang way, way up in the mix so that every word  screamed or spoken  hits the listener hard. In some ways, he was forced to do this if he wanted his voice to contend with the ugly bass, thundering drums, zigzagging guitars, off-kilter piano, and electronic sound maze that makes up the bedrock below him. The resulting formula essentially finds Congleton bolstering the heavy-as-fuck minimalism of Shellac into something more poppy and, if possible, perhaps even more obnoxious for the Paper Chase.
(Kill Rock Stars)